HONORABLE DISCHARGE BEST OPTION CONSIDERING FIRESTORM AROUND FLINN

Poster Girl to Pariah. In the unlikely event that the Air Force ever produces a second promotional film featuring Lt. Kelly Jean Flinn, it has a ready-made title.

Two years ago, Flinn was one of the military's rising stars, a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Academy on the verge of making aviation history by becoming the first woman to pilot a B-52 bomber. Her blonde hair and photogenic profile made her an ideal symbol for the new, equal-opportunity Air Force and role model for American womanhood.

Today, however, the Pentagon just wishes Flinn would go away, the sooner and more quietly the better.

The 26-year-old pilot has been grounded and assigned to a desk job at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. She is facing a court martial today that could result in dismissal from the service and a prison sentence of more than nine years, all because of personal indiscretions involving her affairs with an enlisted man and a married civilian.

Flinn's case has inspired a noisy public debate over the military's alleged double standard on sexual misconduct and its attitude toward women who dare to challenge traditional male strongholds.

Last week, Air Force officials met with Flinn's attorneys in an apparent attempt to avoid the publicity and embarrassment of trying her on charges of adultery and conduct unbecoming an officer. Presumably, Flinn could request to resign from the service and be discharged without facing court martial.

Flinn has expressed reluctance to abandon what had been until very recently an exemplary military career and could still choose to fight the charges.

Win or lose, however, her future effectiveness may have been irretrievably compromised by her own actions and admissions, especially the disclosure that she disobeyed orders and lied to a commanding officer about the status of her relationship with the married man, a soccer coach at the base.

The sex-abuse scandals of the past few years have led to a new offensive against sexual misconduct in the armed forces. The Air Force's rewritten book of core values mandates "similar punishments and rewards for similar deeds," but in fact the treatment of personnel accused of adultery or fraternization has varied widely. Some are tried, convicted and dismissed. Others receive only lectures, reprimands or fines and return to active duty.

Widespread media coverage of Flinn's ordeal seems to have generated a strong public response in her favor. Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., a former Air Force judge advocate general, has written to Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall asking that the charges against Flinn be dismissed.

Flinn has acknowledged and apologized for her mistakes and still professes to love the Air Force and flying. Initially, it might have been in the best interests of Flinn, the taxpayers who have invested more than a million dollars to turn her into a top-notch pilot and the Air Force herself if she had been lectured, reprimanded and returned to her rightful place in a B-52 cockpit.

But given the ambiguities of the case, and the firestorm of publicity that has built up around it, the best of the options that remain would be for the Air Force to grant Flinn's request for a honorable discharge in exchange for her resignation.